As an ophthalmic photographer by day, and a crafter by night, I welcome you to a world of my favorite things: crafting, primitives, folk art, photography, antiques, thrift stores, and general weirdness! Hope you find a few ideas here; Happy Crafting! :)

Once again I’m working on a craft project for my local scarecrow festival! Most of the supplies for this game were got at the Dollar Tree. The rest of the supplies I had on hand, however you really could get everything you need at the dollar store if you needed to!

I started out with a bunch of foam cones that are found in the faux flower/craft section of the Dollar Tree. My husband seems to thing these are going to break once the kids start playing, but I’m thinking it’s going to be fine after testing it and whipping the rings at them…lol. They are pretty secure and it’s a harder foam; not a soft foam that easily dents. You could also use the plastic orange cones found in the athletic section of Wally world.

I used acrylic paint I got from Lowes. These are sample jars that I like to get for crafts since they come in a huge variety of colors. Any acrylic would work fine.

Paint the centers orange and the bases yellow so they look like candy corns.

While those were drying I spray painted a big piece of scrap wood black. You also could use a heavy foam core board, or a big piece of cardboard. Wood is ideal because it is heavier but other materials could be used as long as you have a way of anchoring it down.

I used some heavy duty glue to adhere the foam candy corns and a few small scarecrows, also got at the Dollar Tree, to the board. Use a very strong glue to ensure they stay attached to the board.

Next use stamps, stencils or free hand the “point” numbers below each cone or scarecrow.

Next I used stamps to write out “Ring Toss” along the bottom of the board. You can write whatever you want or write nothing…it’s up to you!

The rings are made from kids glowstick necklaces that come 4 in a package at the dollar store. I taped them to make sure they don’t come apart. They are lightweight and are the perfect sized rings for this game!

The game is pretty self-explanatory but I decided to make a small instruction sign using a chalkboard sign I already had, since the game is going to be at a festival. I made a line in the grass using orange duct tape.

That’s it! Easy and hopefully a fun little activity for kids to play while walking around the festival this year. Next on the agenda is a pumpkin tic tac toe game! Be back soon!

Happy Summer! Over the last few months, my crafty days have been few and far between. However, I recently managed to find some inspiration in this wooden scarecrow man that I found at a barn sale. I am on the committee for a local small town scarecrow festival, so I’m always on the hunt for cool scarecrows. For 25 cents I could not leave this guy behind! Parent love snapping pictures of their kids at festivals so I thought I’d make his long torso a ruler so kids can measure how tall they are!

This isn’t an everyday craft tutorial per sey; it’s kind of geared specifically for a Fall festival or party. The end result was too cute not to share though!

As you can see, his face was already painted. My original plan was to re-paint his face, but I LOVE vintage style characters and cartoons, and I kinda love his face as is! I decided to leave it and just spruce up the rest of his body.

Here he is when I got him:

First I painted his torso yellow which will soon become the ruler!

For projects that will be outside in the elements or need large areas of coverage, I’ve been using paint samples from Lowes. They are around $3 each and you can get them in virtually any color you can imagine. Just go to the paint counter in Lowes, give them your swatch, and ask for a sample. They come in these little screw-top containers that are great for keeping them on hand for your next project.

Anywho, I measured it out and used black paint to make the tick marks and foam stamps for the numbers and “ft.” The foam stamps can be hard to find, so alternatively you could use number stickers or just free-hand them.

The arms are just painted blue with little green squares to give him the country flannel look. I used a small square piece of kitchen sponge to dab on the green. I then added some dollar store garden gloves, a bright handkerchief around his neck, and a little faux flower on his hat!

Lastly I added the sign, which says “How tall are you?” dangling from his hand. He will stand up on a metal stake that he will be securely zipped-tied to with yellow zip ties.

It will make for a simple decoration at the scarecrow festival and maybe a fun memory to look back on and see how much the kids have grown!

I’m back! After a long crafting hiatus I decided to make something in honor of my favorite season approaching; also a project requested by a friend 🙂 . I haven’t had a lot of time or motivation over the last year so I do apologize for my lack of posts. It feels great to be back at it again. This is a popular one on Pinterest and I’m sure you’ve seen many variations of it. Here’s my take and the how-to!

First I bought the large wood piece already cut to this size at Lowe’s, and had the hat-brim pieces in my stock pile of wood. You can use any size for the brim depending on the look you’re going for; I opted for a chunky, large hat. I spray painted both sides of the board and the brims first, then nailed the brims down on either side so they mirror each other.

Here he is all painted, but I don’t like that real crisp, shiny look…

I like a little bit of a worn look so I did some sanding on the edges. I love these little sanding squares, and when they get all nasty and used up, I wrap a new piece of sand paper around it. Go for a large grit to work faster.

If I could find my frickin palm sander I probably would have done more overall sanding for a more rustic look, but since I was hand sanding and my arm was tired, I just got the edges.

Now it’s time for his face(s)! I perused Pinterest and got some ideas of the faces I like and don’t like, and decided on these. I like the simple eyes, the dotted mouth for the snowman, and the cross-hatched mouth for the scarecrow. Also, I HAD to have the candy corn nose!

For his rosy cheeks I used a little round foam brush. You could use any sponge, or just paint pink circles.

Incase you were wondering I used a black paint pen for the crisp lines, a yellow and orange paint pen for the noses, and white/red acrylic for the white accents and pink cheeks. Any ol’ acrylic paint would work, but I like the paint pens because they allow you to work with more precision, especially when outlining.

Now time for the hat accents. To start, I wrapped a piece of burlap ribbon all the way around and tied it in a bow on the scarecrow side. For the snowman I decided on some pip berries and a rusty star. Everything was secured with a hot glue gun.

For the scarecrow, some raffia and a large wooden button found at Michael’s. Both sides also got a little bow of homespun fabric for some color.

I also added “scarfs” by just ripping some strips of fabric and hot-gluing them in place, criss-crossing a bit.

I’m pretty happy with him overall, my only complaint being the hat seems a bit large for the face. Maybe next time I’ll use a skinnier brim.

Thanks to everyone for checking in and commenting over the last year. I hope to be back again soon with some new ideas! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!!!!!!!!

Welcome to Eyeballs By Day, Crafts By Night!

As an ophthalmic photographer by day, and a crafter by night, I welcome you to a world of my favorite things: primitives, country crafts, folk art, photography, antiques, flea markets, thrift stores, eyeballs, and enjoying the simple things in life!